great board games for video gamers

We're back! Three video-game-industry veterans (including a guest host) take over to discuss Mansions of Madness by Fantasy Flight Games, an app-driven, cooperative board game that gives off a strong Resident Evil vibe.

Finally, we wrap up our reviews of SimCity-like board games by comparing Days of Wonder's Quadropolis (plus its Public Services expansion) directly to Stonemaier Games's Between Two Cities (and Capitals expansion). Plus, the return of Seanbaby with his review of The A-Team!​

​Guess what? Our new editor is forcing us to put out episodes at a once-a-month rate (vs. the previous whenever-we-want cadence). We'll see if we can stay disciplined enough to do this for 2018.

This month, three first-person-shooter fans tackle Adrenaline, a board game that simulates arena-based multiplayer shooters like Quake or Unreal Tournament. Does the constant fragging and respawning and fragging again work on the tabletop? The reviewers don't quite agree....

Also, Seanbaby spends a lot of time mocking The Dr. Laura Game. He has a lot to say about this gem!

We're back! Four video-game-industry veterans take on what is basically "The Sims: The Board Game" (but not officially "The Sims," OK?). Also, we've got new ridiculousness with Seanbaby talking about why the Barbie board game is so important to our society.

We have on: Grant Rodiek (who actually works on The Sims and is a board game designer), Stephanie Palermo (from Capcom and also a board game designer), Michael Donahoe (former games journalist), and Shoe (the guy writing these words right now...also a former games journalist).

We already discussed our favorite games of Gen Con, the massive convention that took over Indianapolis, IN back in August. But the show is so much more than just playing tabletop games….​Favorite moment: Going crazy in a game about crazyWe thought things went wrong during our demo of Iello’s Mountains of Madness. (Warning: Slight spoilers ahead, if you’re planning on getting this game!)

In this cooperative strategy game, players must work together to get past challenges as they slowly go mad, Lovecraft-style. Cards will force players to behave strangely, but we also caught some “misprints” in the demo’s retail copy. Some colors were off, which really threw off our timing in the parts of this game that are played in real time. And our demo guide (who was fairly new to the game himself) was getting worried, documenting all the problems we found in this fresh-off-the-presses release, so he could report them back to Iello headquarters.

​Then it hit us a few rounds later: The game was intentionally messing with us. Those odd color changes weren’t misprints -- just designers screwing with our heads and our strategies. Even the demo guy got legitimatedly fooled.

​The massive tabletop gaming convention Gen Con is only four days long, which just isn’t enough time. Here’s what we didn’t get a chance to play in the 2017 edition but would’ve if the show were, say, four times longer.​

Too Many Bones (Chip Theory): We’ve heard so much hype for this board game/role-playing game hybrid that uses dice-placement as its main mechanic (and we sure do love dice-placement games). But the reported three-hour-plus playtime plus $120 price tag scared us off.

Civilization (Fantasy Flight): This is supposedly a more streamlined update to the previous (long) board game that’s based on the famous (long) PC game of the same name.

Bob Ross: The Art of Chill (Big G Creative): It’s a game about Bob Ross. Damn right we’re curious.

This past August, tabletop game publishers from around the world descended on Gen Con 50 like incorporated drug dealers, dishing out samples of Pandemic this, Catan that, for four solid days. And tens of thousands of gamers from around the world showed up and paid for the privilege of being marketed and sold to by these companies. That’s a lot of people chasing that next gaming high.

What’s the draw? At North America’s largest tabletop gaming convention, fans can:

Buy games that aren’t out in stores yet

Preview games that won’t be out for months or even years

Get exclusive promotional material unavailable anywhere else

Or just sample a little bit of a lot, even if they can’t afford to take it all home with them

Going Analog was there. And not even 24 hours after we left, we started missing it already. We no longer ask if we’re going next year; that’s just assumed now.

Here are our co-hosts’ faves of the show. (Make sure to check out our Facebook or Twitter feeds for a ton of photos from the event.)

UPDATE: Congrats to K. Romell, who was randomly selected to win. Everyone else: stay tuned -- we have another giveaway lined up for the rest of you.

We're giving away one copy of Arcadia Quest, courtesy of CMON!

In this skirmish/adventure game, players lead a band of adventurers, taking on A.I. and each other, leveling up and buying better gear in between campaign missions. This is one heavy box with great components and super-detailed miniatures (of course -- it's CMON).

To enter, simply subscribe to our newsletter. (All our newsletter subscribers are automatically entered for this and future contests, but you can find more opportunities by following us on Twitter or Facebook.)

Episode 4's The Pursuit of Happiness lets you play out a full, hopefully happy life, a la The Sims.

Episode 3's T.I.M.E. Stories features cooperative time-traveling adventures for up to four players.

Episode 2's Scythe features bad-ass mechs and some of the most gorgeous art ever seen in a board game.

Episode 1's War of Indines simulates one-on-one fighting games.

The subject of our pilot episode! Great for fans of X-Com's tactical battles.

One of our faves from Gen Con 2017, Secrets is a fantastic hidden-roles game for small groups (4-8P).

Like Risk except good. Mix different races and powers to create unique armies for every match.

Your dice are spaceships. Roll 'em and place 'em to gather resources, get alien tech, and build colonies.

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